When I was on the left & I’d simply tell the truth, they desperately tried to paint me as pushing some kind of “true victimhood” line. I’m not a victim of anything. This tactic —personalise & depoliticise— is used to deflect scrutiny away from their actions & turn it into a joke.

By framing critics as “grievance mongers” or people who think they’re the “real victims”, they turn the speaker into an object of contempt, demean him, paint him as a ridiculous farce, and thus whatever issue he is raising is subsumed within that emotional bubble.

So now whenever their readers/listeners/viewers hear anything about the specific issue the person was raising, they relate to the issue with contempt, not neutrality, objectivity or curiosity. Honest engagement with whatever political issue was at stake is thus foreclosed.